


In which Jack is a sharp-dressed man

by JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, M/M, Minor Angst, More fluff than angst, Pie, Suits, secret relationship pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 16:12:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6862519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle/pseuds/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bitty watches Jack get dressed and wishes he could show him off. He remembers pining when he used to see Jack in suits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In which Jack is a sharp-dressed man

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd, so please let me know about any mistakes.

Eric leaned back against the headboard and watched as Jack pulled black boxer briefs over the rounded muscles of his ass and then tugged a white undershirt on, still facing the closet..

Jack slipped his arms into a snowy dress shirt and settled it on his shoulders, then stepped into the black trousers.

Jack finally turned and held a handful of black onyx studs out to Eric. “Help me with these?” he asked.

Eric stood and crossed the room, all long tanned legs extending from tiny red shorts that were almost hidden by his Samwell T-shirt. He hadn’t pulled on the Zimmermann shirt he normally slept in after their shared shower, and Jack had noticed, but not said anything.

Eric didn’t say anything now as he plucked a stud from Jack’s hand and used it to fasten the top of the starched shirt closed. He worked his way down Jack’s torso, closing the stiff fabric as he went. When he finished, he took the black cuff links from the dish on top of the dresser and closed Jack’s cuffs as well before retreating to sit on the bed, leaving Jack to do up his trousers.

Eric was looking at the dresser, slightly to Jack’s left.

“Bitty,” Jack said. “I’ll leave as early as I can, I promise. I won’t be out late. It’s just that George insisted and …" 

“And you couldn’t say you weren’t available because your boyfriend was visiting,” Eric said, finally looking at him. “Or that you weren’t available because your girlfriend was visiting, because then they would have said to bring her. Honey, I know, and I’m not trying to make this harder for you. Really, I’m not.”

Eric forced a smile.

“You go ahead, Jack, and I’ll be here when you get home.”

Jack stepped in front of Eric and put his hands on his shoulders. “That’s the only thing that makes this worthwhile,” Jack said. “I’m sorry that it had to happen while you were here, but at least we still get to spend most of the weekend together.”

“All right,” Eric said. “You look fabulous in that tux, by the way.”

Jack’s cheeks turned a little pink. “You would say that. You picked it out.”

Eric stood up and embraced Jack, pressing his face into his shirt. He inhaled deeply before looking up. “I know. And I’m going to enjoy taking it off you far more than putting it on.”

After the front door closed Eric flopped back on the bed and decided to give in to his misery for at least a few minutes. He shouldn’t be miserable at all, because he was in love with Jack Zimmermann and Jack Zimmermann was in love with him. The only problem was that he wanted to shout it from the rooftops, and he couldn’t. Jack was a public person, especially here in Providence, where the Falconers were local celebrities. Jack had gone through so much to get here, and he didn’t want his sexuality to be the story. He wanted to be known for his hockey.

Eric, who had hidden his sexuality his whole life up until Samwell, understood. Heck, Jack’s need for privacy had allowed Eric to put off coming out to his parents, too.

Eric groaned and got up and went to the kitchen. He knew Jack had bought all the ingredients he would need for a maple apple pie with the first of the season’s apples just ripe now. That boy.

Eric started peeling apples while he remembered the first time he had seen Jack in a suit, for Winter Screw his freshman year. He and Jack weren’t exactly friends at that point. Eric wouldn’t have denied he thought his captain was attractive, but he told himself that he had no real interest. He knew better than to fall for a straight boy. Then Jack appeared at the dance, dressed in a dark blue suit with a lighter blue tie and tall, blonde Camilla Collins on his arm, and Eric’s stomach gave a lurch. Maybe he’d been more interested than he wanted to think.

Eric tossed the apples with brown sugar as he let his thoughts continue to wander. Jack was in a suit again at the end of the year, for the hockey banquet where he was named captain for a second year. Eric didn’t remember the suit as much as the look on Jack’s face when he approached Eric to thank him for his vote. As though Eric would have voted for anyone else.

By the time Winter Screw rolled around again, Jack lived across the hall from Eric, shared a class with Eric, baked with Eric, and Eric knew without a doubt that he had fallen for a straight boy. Eric pressed the crust into the pie pan when he thought about what Jack looked like coming out of his room for Winter Screw the second year. Eric hadn’t been able to concentrate on his own date the whole night.

At graduation, Eric’s heart was breaking when Jack came across the hall and asked which tie he should wear. It was in pieces when he fussed with Jack’s tie before heading back to the Haus.

Jack had still been wearing that suit when he turned up at the Haus long after Eric thought he was gone, thought he was on his way to a life that would pull him further and further away. Still been wearing that suit when he’d cupped Bitty’s face between his hands and crossed the space between them and kissed him so softly, so hesitantly, and upended Eric’s life in the best way possible.

Those first kisses were as sweet as the maple syrup Eric used to lace the pie filling.

In the 16 months since then, Eric had seen a lot more of Jack Zimmermann in a suit. Mostly on TV, as Jack entered and left arenas on special occasions. When George suggested that Jack invest in buying a tuxedo, Eric had gone with him to shop in New York, where Jack was far less well-known. 

They’d agreed at the beginning to keep their relationship private, and had succeeded for the most part. Jack’s parents knew -- Eric thanked God every day that Bad Bob had encouraged Jack to make the first move -- and Eric had suggested that they tell Lardo and Shitty when it got to be too difficult to keep it strictly secret.

But that meant dates -- actual going out, just the two of them, for a nice dinner or something like that -- were rare, and usually only happened when they could get away to New York or Eric could meet Jack somewhere on a road trip. Even then, Jack couldn’t spend the night with Eric because his roommate would get suspicious.

Most of the time they spent together was in Jack’s condo. When Eric could come to games, he would buy himself a ticket on StubHub, trying to move around to different sections, and be home before Jack got there and slid into bed next to him. Jack insisted on paying him back for the seats, since he would have been able to just leave tickets for him at the box office if they were in a public relationship.

The only times Jack acknowledged Eric around his teammates were when the whole Samwell team came for a game, and Jack arranged for all of them to visit the locker room afterward. Even then, Tater’s brow had furrowed when he heard the other players call Eric “Bitty” and Jack had looked panicked for a moment.

The summer had been better, with Eric managing to get a job at a Providence bakery so he didn’t have to go home to Madison. He not only helped with the baking, he got to set up and run social media accounts for the bakery, and he got to live with Jack in the off-season. To the outside world, it was young hockey player helping out a former teammate so he could save more money over the summer. To Eric, it had been close to paradise.

But now Eric was back at Samwell for his senior year, and hockey season was coming up. He didn’t have Lardo down the hall any more; even Ransom and Holster were gone. This would likely be the last weekend for a while that he could come down to Providence, and Jack had to spend Saturday night out at a charity event without him.

More than anything, Eric wanted to talk to someone who would listen and understand. Someone who would comfort him. Until Jack, that would have been his mother, but Eric had felt the distance between them grow when he decided not to tell her about Jack. Maybe it was time to do what he could to bring them closer again.

Once the dishes were done, Eric unplugged his phone from the speaker and called.

“Hi, Mama. Sorry to call so late,” he said.

“Yes, Mama. I’m fine. Just feeling a little lonely right now.”

“No, I’m not at the Haus. I’m in Providence, but Jack had to go do something.”

“Yes, Jack’s fine. Mama, I want to tell you something, but you can’t tell anyone.”

“Mama, Jack’s my boyfriend. But remember, you can’t tell anyone.”

“Mama? Are you OK? Are you crying? Please Mama, don’t cry.”

“Oh. Why are you laughing? How long have you known? Coach too? Lord. I should have told you last summer. I’m sorry, Mama. It’s just we were trying to keep it quiet, and I didn’t know … Yes, ma’am, I should have known that you would always love me. Yes, ma’am, I should have known that you’d know me well enough to figure it out.”

By the time the pie was done, Eric and his mother had made tentative plans for his parents to come up and go to a Falconers game with him, sometime after football season, and to invite Jack for a longer visit to Madison in the summer.

Before they hung up, Eric’s mother had turned serious. “He’s a fine young man, Dicky, and I do like him. But I won’t sit by and say nothing if I think this relationship is hurting you. I understand why you have to keep it secret -- that’s why Coach and I never said anything -- but the two of you, you have to be careful with each other’s hearts,” she said. “Don’t let this turn into something that brings you more pain than joy.”

The pie was on the counter when Jack came in and was greeted at the front door by its aroma. He glanced into the kitchen before walking through the empty living room and pausing at the bedroom door.

Eric was back on the bed, now shirtless, scrolling through something on his phone. Jack looked for a moment before crossing the room to sit on the edge of the bed next to his boyfriend.

“I know you haven’t been sitting there all night,” he said. “I saw the pie.”

“I didn’t mean you to think I was,” Eric said. “I was going for efficiency. I think I promised to get you out of that suit.”

Jack pointedly looked at the bed, then at Eric. “So you wanted to be closer to the closet?”

“Not exactly,” Eric said, leaning up to kiss Jack and putting his phone on the bedside table. “Stand up, Mr. Zimmermann.”

Eric stood as well and pushed the jacket off Jack’s shoulders and hung it up. He came to stand in front of Jack and started working the studs out of the shirt.

“I do need to tell you something, though,” Eric said. “I called mama and told her about us.”

Jack was silent for a moment. “You didn’t have to do that by yourself,” he said. “I would have done it with you. How did she take it?”

“She laughed at me,” Eric said. “She couldn’t believe I thought she didn’t know already. Well, she and Coach.”

“Oh.” Jack paused again. “They’re OK with it?”

“Yeah,” Eric said, and snorted. “She said you’re a ‘fine young man.’ And that they want to come see a game this season, and you’re invited to spend a week in Madison in July.”

“Well, then,” Jack said. “It’s about time. My parents have been fawning over you forever.”

Bitty finished with the studs and cuff links and slid the shirt down Jack’s arms. Then he lifted the undershirt over Jack’s head, dropped it on the floor, and nuzzled into Jack’s chest.

“You smell good,” Eric said.

Jack buried his nose in Eric’s hair and inhaled. “You do too.”

Then he straightened, pulling back far enough to look at Eric’s face. “I have something to tell you too,” he said. “I told George about us.”

“What did she say?” Eric said.

“She didn’t laugh,” Jack said. “But I don’t think she was too surprised. She knew who you were. I told her because I want to come out to the team, at least. Not go completely public yet, but give the guys a chance to get used to the idea.”

“Are you sure it’ll be OK?” Eric asked, leaning back into Jack. “Are you gonna be OK?”

“I’ll be fine,” Jack said. “And I don’t think any of them will have a problem. If someone does, there’ll be enough support to overcome it. But at least I can be honest with them about what’s going on in my life.”

“Oh, honey,” Eric said. “I’m gonna have to make more pie.”

“Not yet,” Jack said. “You promised to get me out of this suit, and it looks to me like you’re only half done.”

“Then I should get to work.” Eric smirked and dropped to his knees, bringing his hands to Jack’s belt.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/justlookfrightened)!


End file.
